


A Royal Flush

by MaxWrite



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Multi, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-12
Updated: 2007-09-12
Packaged: 2017-10-18 14:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/189944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaxWrite/pseuds/MaxWrite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily partakes in a friendly game of strip poker with the boys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Royal Flush

I explained the rules. They all said they understood. They all lied. Well, most of them did.

Peter, who’d given up and was clearly sulking about it, was in his singlet and boxers, his arms and legs crossed. James was completely starkers and displaying no shame whatsoever. I don’t know who he thought he was trying to impress; everybody in the room had already seen him naked many times. Sirius was down to his underwear and just barely hanging onto them. I, on the other hand, was still fully clothed and quite happy about that. I’d put too much thought into my outfit to go losing it in some silly poker game.

The fact that Remus was the most clothed of the boys at that point was no surprise. I suspect his being a half-blood had something to do with his knowledge of the game. Oh, he’d feigned ignorance well enough, but I’d kept a close eye on him from the beginning.

Only his socks and belt had been removed as he surveyed me from the other side of the table. He looked back down at his cards, his face unreadable. He began to chew the inside of his jaw, apparently thinking something over as he sat back in his chair and canted his head, his long, delicate fingers plucking one card from his hand and placing it right back in, in another spot.

I sighed impatiently as I leaned forward, watching him, bouncing my leg beneath the table.

“What’re you waiting for, mate, a bloody drum roll?” asked James.

“Shush!” hissed Sirius, frowning at his cards. “Only people with enough guts to still be in the game are allowed to speak!”

“It’s not for lack of guts that I’m out; it’s for lack of clothing, you git. I’m naked!”

“You’ve still got your specs, don’t you? Can always bet those.”

“Yeah, but what would I raise with if I needed to?”

“Well, we could always start playing _Shave_ Poker,” I suggested, grinning at him, my eyes darting down to his dark pubic thatch for just a second. Off to my left, I heard Pettigrew gulp.

“Now, now,” said the consummate voice of reason, Remus. “It’s bad enough we’ve got to see him nude. Let’s all be thankful for what the hair is still covering up, shall we?”

I snorted, raising my hand up to my mouth to hide my smile, but I’m sure James saw it anyway.

“Hey, Lupin,” I said. “What say we up the stakes a bit?”

He looked up at me again, one eye slightly more narrowed than the other. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well, instead of clothing, why don’t we play for things we really want?”

“You just don’t want to take anything off,” said Sirius.

“And thank Merlin!” said James. “Otherwise I’d have to temporarily blind you all.”

“I told you, James,” I said, “I’m really good at this game. I knew I wouldn’t have to take anything off with you lot.”

“Getting back to raising the stakes,” said Remus, looking at me.

“Well, let’s face it,” I said, “neither of us wants to see the other naked, do we?”

He considered that, eyes rolling upwards for a moment. “I suppose not, no.”

“Well, what about me?” asked Sirius. “How come you only addressed Remus with your little proposal. I’m still in this, too.”

“Just barely,” I smirked. “Sirius, I hate to break this to you, but … you’re terrible at poker.”

He raised his thick, black eyebrows at me. “I beg your pardon?”

“She’s right,” said Remus. “You’re dreadful. And your hand this round is just pitiful.”

Sirius clutched his cards to his chest, his mouth dropping open in shock. “How did you –”

“You’re also quite bad at hiding your cards properly. Sorry.” Remus gave him a curt little shrug.

“Well, fine. I fold then,” said Sirius, throwing down his cards like a petulant child.

Remus turned back to me, giving me his full attention, his golden eyes deceptively warm. I’d always thought Remus a kind, courteous gentleman – which he is, of course – but it had quickly become clear that anyone playing this game with him, man or woman, would have to watch his or her back.

“Please, continue,” he said graciously. “If not clothing, then what?”

“Let’s put it this way: I must admit I’m _awfully_ curious to know where you disappear to every month.”

I heard a gasp, a slap and a yelp, one right after the other. It’d been Pettigrew who’d gasped. Then, from what I could tell, James had slapped his bare foot against Peter’s bare leg beneath the table rather sharply, causing Peter to yelp. I narrowed my eyes at them, then at Remus.

“I take it I’ve just posed a very good question,” I said.

“You may take it anyway you wish, my dear,” said Remus, his deep voice smooth as silk. “I think I understand what you’re getting at. Instead of clothing, you’d like to play for information.”

“Or favours. Whichever floats your boat.”

“Humph. Okay, then. Well, then let’s see …” He pursed his lips as he considered. “I’d like to know what kind of history you have with Severus Snape.”

James’s face snapped round toward me. “So, would I, actually.”

“Nothing, James, darling,” I assured him, my eyes never leaving Remus’s. “I’ve told you before, we were just friends.”

“Well, you did run to his aid awfully quickly that time we levitated his arse across the school grounds,” Sirius helpfully pointed. I glared at him, gritting my teeth

“Okay. Fine then,” I said, slapping my hand, face down, on the table, leaning forward, one hand on my hip. “I dare you to make out with Sirius!”

Another gasp, but no slap or yelp this time, for this time James was too busy picking his jaw up off the floor to bother chastising Peter. Sirius was in much the same predicament.

“Make out with Sirius?” said Remus, calm as you please. “Now, why would you ask for something like that?”

“Because I want to see it,” I replied, my voice lilting, rising toward the ceiling on wings of nonchalance. “And because you want to. You both do.”

“Excuse me?” asked Sirius in a wonderful show of disbelief. “Potter, your old lady’s lost her marbles.”

“No, no, wait a minute,” said James, his brow furrowed, his eyes going from Sirius to Remus, then back again, shaking his finger at them. “I think she might be on to something here. I’ve seen things. Things between you two that haven’t made sense until just now.”

“Well, we’re not … _together,_ if that’s the rubbish you’re thinking of spreading round,” said Sirius.

“No, I didn’t say that. But sometimes … there are looks. In your eyes. Merlin’s buttocks, you want each other, don’t you?”

“No!” cried Sirius. “Remus, tell the poor deluded boy, please! … Remus?”

Remus’s gaze had yet to leave my face. In fact, I’m not sure he’d even blinked at all. “You’re playing dirty,” he said, almost murmured. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“You’d be surprised what I’ve got in me,” I retorted.

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think I’d be surprised at all. I’ll see your Make Out Request and raise you … an admission of exactly what’s … _in_ you.”

In a split second, his eyes went down to my belly then back up to my face. My stomach dropped.

“You’re bluffing,” I said.

“Perhaps.”

“How the hell do you …” I paused, choosing my words carefully, glancing around at the other three, James in particular. “How do you think you know that?”

“The nose knows,” was all he said in reply. I had no clue what that meant. He could _smell_ that I was pregnant? What the hell?

“What’s he mean by that?” James asked me.

“Nothing!” I snapped through clenched teeth, my gaze searing holes through my opponent’s head.

“Are you in or are you out?” asked Remus, cool as a cucumber.

I ground my teeth together behind my tightly sealed lips as I considered his proposal. “Fine. I’m in.” I announced. I stared him dead in the eye, trying to decide whether he had a good enough hand to beat me. I was holding four of a kind, so it wasn’t likely. But even having played poker with him for the past few hours, I still couldn’t tell how good a liar Remus Lupin really was.

“Do you really want to go through with this, Lily?”

“Do _you?”_

“I have nothing to be afraid of.”

“Well, neither do I.”

At that moment, his eyes darted back down to my stomach, and I shifted, couldn’t stop myself, let my free hand drop down to cover the area as though that could somehow shield my condition from his eyes. I inwardly cursed myself for that little display of weakness. He knew. Somehow he knew, and I’d just confirmed it for him.

But I couldn’t back down. I couldn’t let him win.

I laid down my hand, watching him watch me do so, my gaze never wavering, sitting up tall, facing my fate head-on.

“Four of a kind,” I announced coolly. “What’ve you got, Lupin?”

He looked down at his hand and took a slow breath. He seemed to be about to reveal his cards, even lowered them a bit, but then he paused, seemed to be thinking, considering something. He looked up at me again. I began to fidget nervously.

I thought for sure when he started to move that he was preparing to reveal a Royal Flush. Our eyes remained locked as he put his hand down. I heard the tiny _tap_ of cards against the wooden table as Remus slid his fingers out from under them. His face didn’t change and I couldn’t see his hand; I hadn’t looked down yet. I don’t know how long it took me to look; seconds? Minutes? Days?

 _I can’t tell James now,_ I thought. _I’m not ready. I’m not even sure yet! I’m not that late. How the hell does Remus know?!_

“Well played,” said Remus. “Looks like you lucked out this time.”

“What?” I looked down at his hand. All his cards were face-down. He’d folded. I frowned. “I won? … I mean, um, I won. Of course. S’what I was expecting, naturally.” I cleared my throat and looked triumphantly around at the others.

“So, I suppose you want Sirius and me to kiss now.”

“This is just stupid,” muttered Sirius, crossing his arms.

“A deal’s a deal,” I said.

“Erm, I think I hear somebody at the door,” said Peter. He got up, grabbed his clothes and scurried from the room, clearly not interested in seeing his best mates snog each other. Humph. No accounting for taste.

“You leaving, too, Potter?” I asked as James stood.

“Nope. Just putting on some clothes. A mite nippy in here.” James put his underpants and t-shirt back on and sat down again, looking at his two best friends. “So,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at them. “I thought you two were going to put on a little show.”

Remus turned to Sirius and raised his eyebrows as if to ask, “What do you say?” Sirius gawped at him in disbelief for a moment and then turned to frown at James and me.

“Well,” he finally said, “I appear to be outnumbered.”

“This hardly works against you, from what I can see,” Remus pointed out. “We do get to kiss each other, after all. And we finally get to tell our friends about us. You consider that a good thing, don’t you? I mean, at least I’d thought –”

“Oh, don’t start with that. You weren’t wrong to think that. Of course I think it’s a good thing.” He glanced at James and me again. “As long as they do, that is.”

I smiled at him. I’d suspected them of some secret affair, but I hadn’t been sure. Now, finding out that I’d been correct, I felt all giddy and couldn’t hide my smile if I tried. I reached over and punched Sirius in the arm. He gave me a grateful little smile and looked back at Remus.

“Well, then,” said Sirius, throwing up his hands. “I guess I have no choice.”

Remus moved his chair closer, eyes warm and only for Sirius as he replied, “You never did.”

When their lips met, I think I sighed. I glanced over at James to see if he was just as touched, but all I found on his face was shock. His mouth was literally hanging open. I nudged him in the ribs with my elbow and looked back at the happy couple, who had fallen deep into a serious snog. I even caught a glimpse of Sirius’s tongue, shortly after which he pulled away.

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” he said with a shy little laugh I’d never heard from him before. “I’m only in my boxers here. If we keep going, it’ll be hard to hide … things.”

Remus threw his head back and howled with laughter. I felt James shaking next to me, looked over and found he was laughing quietly into his hand. Sirius, who was beginning to blush – something I’m certain he’s never, ever done before – lowered his face to hide his sheepish smile. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the old dog had fallen in love.

“So, that’s it then,” said Sirius. “Come on, we should go see where Peter’s run off to.”

“Oh, I’m still waiting for my apology,” said James. “You two’ve been keeping secrets from me.”

“Oh, stop,” I said. “It’s a delicate subject. They probably didn’t want to jinx it by telling too soon.” I beamed at Remus and Sirius as I said this, but as I looked at Remus, I remembered something. “Wait. You still owe me.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You still haven’t told me where you disappear to every month.”

The room went deathly silent again. I’d almost swear even the clock stopped ticking for a moment. I looked around at all three of them; they were like sombre stone statues with darting eyes.

“What is _with_ all of you?”

“Nothing’s with us,” said Remus, sitting forward a bit. “Lily, the truth is –”

“Lupin!” snapped James.

“James, please. It’s about time, don’t you think?”

James opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again. He crossed his arms and sat back, shaking his head.

With a nod at James, Remus looked at me again and continued: “Lily, I trust you. As much – if not more in some cases,” he said with a little grin, “– as I trust James, Sirius and Peter. So, I think it’s high time you knew. The truth is … I’m a werewolf.”

James and Sirius fidgeted.

“What are you on about?” I asked.

“I’m a werewolf. I was attacked when I was a boy.”

“By a werewolf?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve been one all this time?”

“That’s right.”

“Even during all your years at Hogwarts?”

“Yes. Dumbledore knew. He helped me hide my condition.”

I stared at him. Then I looked around at James and Sirius, who were each looking anywhere but at Remus and me. They knew something. James had known something and he’d kept it from me.

I looked at Remus again, into his eyes, really studied him. He stared back solemnly, his face slightly lowered, as he waited for my response, as he waited … for me to make a fool of myself. I grinned. I wasn’t falling for it.

“Okay,” I said, throwing up my hands and standing. “Don’t tell me then.”

“Wait, Lily –”

“No, no, it’s okay.” I walked around the table toward the archway that led out to the living room. “It’s obviously some silly boy thing you’re keeping from me and telling me what it is would break your super secret blood brother bond or something.” I waved a hand at them as I departed. “Don’t worry about it; I wasn’t that interested, anyway.”

I was still grinning and shaking my head as I entered the living room. I flopped down on the couch and chuckled to myself. A werewolf, indeed. How gullible did they think I was?

After a short while, Sirius, now fully clothed and with his hands in his pockets, wandered out to join me.

“You almost had me there, Black.”

“Yeah. Remus should’ve known better. Should’ve gone for something a little more believable, eh?”

“Oh, I think so.”

He dropped himself onto the sofa next to me with a sigh, pulled his hands from his pocket and held something in front of my face. It was someone’s hand from the poker game. A royal flush.

“What’s that?”

“Remus’s hand. Swiped it when he and James started cleaning up the dishes.”

“But …” I sat up and took the cards from him, stared down at them in disbelief. “But that means –”

“– that he won, yeah. And he lied about it.”

I looked at him. “For me.”

He nodded. “For you. He wasn’t about to let you break the news to James like that, by losing some silly poker game. That’s just insensitive.”

I blinked at him.

“What? It’s not his style … It’s _my_ style, mind, but, luckily for you, I’m rubbish at poker.”

“Right, but … hang on. How do you know?”

“What? You mean about your … pregnancy?” He whispered the word.

“Yeah. Not that I am,” I added quickly. “’Cause … I’m not, but … how can you tell?”

He shrugged, a mysterious, knowing smile on his face. “You’ve just got that glow, Lill.”

“Glow? I am not glowing.”

“Are,” he insisted, but something in his confident tone and attitude suggested he wasn’t telling me everything. I decided not to argue.

“So, then you’re the one who told Remus.”

“What? Course not. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Well, how else would he know? And you’re lovers, so why wouldn’t you tell him? I bet you tell each other everything.”

“Oh, er …” He eyed me sidelong. “So, if I had told him, you wouldn’t be angry?”

“Nah. I’m too happy for you two.”

“Oh. Well, then, er … yeah. Sure. I told him. Spilled the beans, I did. Yup. You know me, gums always flapping, can’t keep a secret to save my life, heh. Well, I’m gonna go find Peter. See you, Evans.”

“That’s Evans-Potter, remember?” I said as he stood.

“Right, right. I keep forgetting you’re a married woman now.” He walked around the back of the sofa and squeezed my shoulder on his way past. Soon he was gone, leaving me to stare at Remus’s hand in silence. I smiled to myself; Remus, you sweet old sod.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move. I looked over at the kitchen archway and saw Remus standing there watching me. I smiled warmly and held up his hand so he could see it. With a modest little bow of his head, a smile and a wink, he ducked out of the archway and out of sight.

END


End file.
